If there was ever a time I felt I needed yoga, it’s after my 4 year old’s Category 3 meltdown. So I grabbed the latest issue of Yoga Journal and flip to this month’s Home Practice. This series of moves is centered on hip opening moves, and for those of you who are new to yoga, focusing on this area helps relieve stress in a way I never realized. As the author, Stephanie Snyder, points out, “The pelvis is like the body’s junk drawer. Whenever you don’t know what to do with a feeling or experience, you put it there.”

As I moved from low lunge to high lunge and focused on my breathing, I could already feel the tension start to ease. My Warrior Pose needs a little finesse… I felt more like a tight rope walker trying to keep my balance, but I know that will come with practice. Some of the poses I already have in my “stretching repertoire” that I do after running (who knew I was doing yoga all this time?) and as I rounded into the eighth pose, Bound Angle, the stress and angst from the tantrum was all but gone.